Modi Government sources on Thursday dismissed as "factually incorrect" media reports of former Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) chief TS Raju claiming that the defence undertaking had signed a work-share contract with French company Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale fighter jets.

"In the news item published (Thursday) ex Chairman and Managing Director, (CMD) HAL has been quoted as stating that an agreed work-share with Dassault Aviation (DA) was submitted to government. The same news item also referred to the cost of the aircraft, life cycle cost issues, etc. The statement attributed to ex CMD, HAL is factually incorrect," said the sources.

The sources said that Raju was a member of the Contract Negotiations Committee of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and "there were many major areas of disagreement between HAL and DA".